Why is ACP a rule?
Wish to test it out?
Go put some big fluffy gloves and thick sweats on.
Then try to do the following things.
1) Type a post on this forum. (Generic dexterity task).
2) Try to get the right key off of a very full keyring and unlock a door (a much easier version of disable device)
3) Climb a fence
4) Take a swim.
Now imagine doing all those things if your gloves and sweats were made of hardened leather or steel.
Maybe ride shouldn't be penalized (but isn't there an enchantment to get around that?)
Why is ACP a rule?
Wish to test it out?Go put some big fluffy gloves and thick sweats on.
Then try to do the following things.
1) Type a post on this forum. (Generic dexterity task).
2) Try to get the right key off of a very full keyring and unlock a door (a much easier version of disable device)
3) Climb a fence
4) Take a swim.
Now imagine doing all those things if your gloves and sweats were made of hardened leather or steel.
Maybe ride shouldn't be penalized (but isn't there an enchantment to get around that?)
The hardened leather or steel wouldn't soak up the water like the sweats would. That is the flaw in your plan.
The padding you wear under your plate or Curboli leather armor however, does soak up water. It makes the armor heavier, clumsier and more restricting.
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Okay good, looks cool. However I'm looking more for actual time-appropriate texts describing the experiences of actual soldiers in armour. Academic historical appraisal of such texts is a pre.
Otherwise this thread devolves into anecdotal evidence which is even anachronistic. As evidence by the perpetuation of various myths pertaining to the encumbrance of medieval armour contained within. :(
As opposed to dismissing those myths without any solid evidence, which is just as flawed. Personally, I'll take the word of someone who fights regularly in a studied re-enactment society. It's about as much evidence as we need since we're talking about a game where humans can routinely lift 300+ lbs overhead.
Nobody is looking for an academic discourse through game mechanics; each person just has a different interest in real-life simulation.
1) Type a post on this forum. (Generic dexterity task).
2) Try to get the right key off of a very full keyring and unlock a door (a much easier version of disable device)
3) Climb a fence
I have spent a full day in armor at work, with the majority of the time at my computer typing away without any problems.
I did take off my gauntlets before starting to type. Is there any reason why someone trying to do things that normally require dexterity (like disable device or remove a key from a keyring) wouldn't take them off? Would that remove the ACP?
Climbing a fence, no problem, maybe even less than without armor - I am not worried about slipping and impaling myself on the top of the chain link fence or barbed wire.
I haven't tried swimming yet, but I likely will do so one day.
As I mentioned up thread, there is some loss of flexibility, but I don't think that it is as severe as the ACPs make it out to be.
IMO, it isn't worth having variable penalties depending on what type of armor and activity, so a generic penalty is the easiest way to go (there are a lot of rules that go more with convenience than reality - it makes the game faster and with a smoother flow).
I did want to point out a few of the misconceptions people have about medieval armor.
What type of armor was it?
Maybe I can contribute to this a bit.
I practice medieval sword fighting, based on a 14th century manuscripts of Fiore dei Liberi. This western martial art is designed so that it can be done in armor or without armor. Unlike the fencer who posted earlier, the movements I make work well regardless of whether I am wearing armor or not.
I have a set of armor that is based on the armor recovered from the archeological dig at the site of the Battle of Wisby (or Visby). My armor is strips of metal that are covered in leather, a coat of plates, with arms and leg armor also based on that style. With the helmet, it weights in at around 60 pounds. I don't really notice the weight when I am wearing it, and I have worn it all day on more than one occasion (even spend a full day wearing it at work last halloween).
The harness is a component often overlooked by many, but it is extremely important, it is what holds your armor in place, the armoring jacket, the straps, armoring points, etc. A badly set up harness will make wearing armor uncomfortable, even painful.
I am fairly silent when I move around in my armor. My buddy has a set of plate mail and he is not silent at all.
I have done forward rolls in armor (not gracefully, but then again, I have yet to master rolling gracefully even without armor). I haven't been able to do rolls when wearing a fanny pack or backpack (doing it with a fanny pack hurts, a lot).
At a tournament that I was at recently, one of the guys was showing off some new plate armor that he had and he danced a jig with it on, apparently without any effort or problems.
The biggest problems that I had with wearing the armor for long periodes are the heat and the fact that I don't have medieval pants (going to the washroom can be a pain if certain parts don't unlace), and the reduced visibility when wearing a full helm.
In conclusion, there is a small reduction in mobility and flexibility, which varies according to the armor used, but I don't believe that it is as great as the current ACPs. It is porbably not worth changing the current system, as it would go to far into the weeds for the possible benefit.
The only thing I can suggest is performing a few simple athletic tests with and without armor. Something like 200m dash, longjump, 100m freestyle swim (if this does not ruin your armor, and please not in deep water) and a military circuit. Get the times for both and post the result.
I'm very curious about this: as of now I think the penalty from armor are too light, but since I've never worn anything heavier than chain shirt I don't know for sure. This could also help with establishing more correct penalties to the different skills.
The only thing I can suggest is performing a few simple athletic tests with and without armor. Something like 200m dash, longjump, 100m freestyle swim (if this does not ruin your armor, and please not in deep water) and a military circuit. Get the times for both and post the result.
I'm very curious about this: as of now I think the penalty from armor are too light, but since I've never worn anything heavier than chain shirt I don't know for sure. This could also help with establishing more correct penalties to the different skills
The question would remain, as I suspect that there are some that wouldn't accept the numbers if it didn't support their argument.
Also, I don't know if it would actually answer the question. As the athletic tests that you mentioned are flawed if they are only done with armor and without armor - my armor weights 60 pounds, so it will slow me down a little and I will not be able to jump as far - but that is related to the weight more than the armor.
In my armor, I have been able to move up behind people and surprise them as they did not hear me coming (my buddy in full plate can't do that, as he rattles too much), so for my armor there is no stealth penalty.
My "disable device" checks are unimpared if I take my gauntlets off (as I did when I spent the day at work in armor and typed for a few hours). Gauntlets are the easiest thing to take off and put on (you need to take them off to undo the straps to take your helmet off).
I might do some tests later, once my knee heals up (non-sword fighting injury), but I will likely add in tests with a backpack with the same weight as my armor.
What type of armor was it?
Stubs McKenzie is correct, the closest my armor comes to in Pathfinder is banded mail.
Edit: Correct typo in Stubs name.
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60 pounds of weight is going to effect your movement. If you don't believe me, try Jumping, climbing, sprinting, etc with and without the armor and measure your results.
The fighter is trained at how to wear the armor with less penalty, the rest are at minimum carrying the weight while generally suffering the loss of mobility.
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Also, I don't know if it would actually answer the question. As the athletic tests that you mentioned are flawed if they are only done with armor and without armor - my armor weights 60 pounds, so it will slow me down a little and I will not be able to jump as far - but that is related to the weight more than the armor.
The two aren't separate things. I've worn chainmail and while it doesn't specifically restrict movement, it is heavy enough to slow your arm (effecting strength based skilled) and would make dexterous actions more difficult, even if only in the same way wearing weighted arm bands would make lock picking more challenging.
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Having worn some of the heaviest armors made by man, both new and old, I've come to the conclusion that the ACPs being as big as they are is just silly, at least if the armor was made for you. The plate armors in particular have ludicrously high ACPs. Maybe I have lots of levels of fighter, the endurance feat, and I've only ever worn masterwork armor, but somehow I don't think so.
I'm not even going to get into why they have max dex modifiers, that's absolutely ludicrous. I can see them having dex penalties based on weight, but if you know how to operate a suit of armor well enough, you can function almost as well as you can without the armor.
Here's a thought that makes ACP look incredibly silly: The heaviest modern armor is worn by bomb-squad units, who use disable device to turn off bombs, disable device is a skill affected by ACP.
Furthermore: do you really think a suit of full plate, made for him, would slow Jackie Chan that much? Think about it.
Jackie Chan's a Monk if I ever saw one - he's gonna lose that Wis bonus. :P
Jackie Chan's a Monk if I ever saw one - he's gonna lose that Wis bonus. :P
Somehow, I highly doubt that.
I've done some training as lifeguard and had to swim in a full set of clothes. Not some light t-shirt and shorts... an ankle-long loose-fitting jeans and a shirt made of rigid heavy cloth (~jeans jacket with long sleeves), with shoes and all. Try it... and thats just cloth. Now put on a weight belt like the ones used for diving and try again... good luck.
Metal does NOT float!I'd say clothes are actually a lot more cumbersome than metal when underwater. Clothes absorb water, so they get a lot heavier. Metal, on the other hand, does not.
In fact, I dare say its a lot easier to raise a heavy piece of metal over your head underwater than on dry land (well, except for the "I can't breath!" problem)
Between swiming with steel armor or an equally heavy set of clothes... Well, I'd stay on dry-land, but I guess doing it with armor would be easier (considering only weight, not limitations to mobility).
Cloth does not drag you to the bottom of the river/sea/lake. Wet/soaked cloth is heavy above water, but the trick to swimming in clothes is to keep all cloth just below the waterline, that way it only severly hampers your movement (rolling aroud your arms and legs, but cloth does not make you sink).
The problem with metal is that you constantly have to swim UP on top of everything else... while being restricted in your movement and without those modern diving flippers.----------------
What many fail to see when they say "that ACP shouldn't be so high": what's the average dex of a human?
what's the equivalent of a 15 dex human?
what's the equivalent of a 20 dex human?
as a personal guideline I've put an 18 dex ~ gymnastics sports
put a custom-fitted heavy armor on such a girl and ask her to do those tumbling moves with that armor on... I'm fairly sure she'll notice a way bigger difference then you or me.
Maybe a good houserule would be to turn that ACP into a "max dex" for everything, not just armor? Less rules and easier to handle?
However how do you handle swimming and climbing in armor, then? these go of strength... max strenght sounds rather silly.
Probably because everyone inside the same size category from Orcs to Dwarves to Elves to Troglodytes wear the same armours.
Otherwise this thread devolves into anecdotal evidence which is even anachronistic. As evidence by the perpetuation of various myths pertaining to the encumbrance of medieval armour contained within. :(
One of the difficulty is that the medieval period spans (roughly) from Charlemagne (8th Century) to the discovery of America / invention of printing press / voyage of Marco Polo / Fall of Constantinople (mid to late 15th century, depending on who you ask). Many countries and regions will not see the Renaissance before the 16th or 17th century.
There has been huge changes in technology and demography during those years. Plate armour for example does not come before the 13th century, and the full plate of the 13th century certainly isn't the same as the one from the late 15th century. 16th century armour is already different from its 15th century counterpart, and 17th century armour is yet another thing. Warcraft evolved significantly and with different tactics over time and regions. From the 15th century on, when full plate armours get much better, gunpowder also starts to change siege and warcraft significantly.
It's a bit like asking to describe the fighting techniques of the 20th century. Before WWI? At the beginning or the end of WWI? Or are you talking about WWII, or Corea, or Vietnam, or Iraq? And that's only asking about Americans. What about Russia, Japan,Middle East, South Africa.
If you're looking for academic input, you've better narrow down your period to, at the most, a 100 year span.
To make this even more difficult, there are relatively few documents left that allows us to establish objective facts dating before Napoleonic wars. Many academic books are nowadays considered flawed as the renaissance academicians who wrote these documents where biased in the first place. Many modern misconceptions actually come from such academic sources. For example, some older (academic) sources will cite that knights would need a crane to mount their horse. Nowadays, we know that this was only true for jousting armours in 16th century England, Germany and a few restricted countries. Still today, you'll find different (sometimes contradicting) material on the 100 years war depending if the author is French or British. Arguments between the longbow vs heavy armour aren't about to stop anytime soon...
'findel
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Well if academics cannot agree why do we hope to do so in this thread? 8)
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Having worn some of the heaviest armors made by man, both new and old, I've come to the conclusion that the ACPs being as big as they are is just silly, at least if the armor was made for you. The plate armors in particular have ludicrously high ACPs. Maybe I have lots of levels of fighter, the endurance feat, and I've only ever worn masterwork armor, but somehow I don't think so.
I'm not even going to get into why they have max dex modifiers, that's absolutely ludicrous. I can see them having dex penalties based on weight, but if you know how to operate a suit of armor well enough, you can function almost as well as you can without the armor.
Here's a thought that makes ACP look incredibly silly: The heaviest modern armor is worn by bomb-squad units, who use disable device to turn off bombs, disable device is a skill affected by ACP.
Furthermore: do you really think a suit of full plate, made for him, would slow Jackie Chan that much? Think about it.
Add to that the Ride skill. Glad to know all those knights will have no problem controlling their mounts in battle!
The reason for the Dex cap is purely game balance. It's to prevent the high-Dex builds from using heavy armor to get a ludicrously high AC. Of course, the easy solution to that is to change the ability score bonus progression, or cap ability scores.
Brox wear armer. Brox like nachos. Cheezy gooey tasti nachos always spill an break when try to eat in armer. This why armer have penalty. Brox curse it for everyone because it keep from eating nachos.
Now you no rest of storee
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Well if academics cannot agree why do we hope to do so in this thread? 8)
I think that as a fantasy game we can take some "artistic liberties". The game is by definition anachronistic already; we can afford some historical incoherencies.
So all we need to agree is on how we want the game to play...
in either cases its a lost cause :)
Brox wear armer. Brox like nachos. Cheezy gooey tasti nachos always spill an break when try to eat in armer. This why armer have penalty. Brox curse it for everyone because it keep from eating nachos.
Now you no rest of storee
When you go to eat, lay on your back, and put the food on your breastplate. Then enjoy your meal.
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Having worn some of the heaviest armors made by man, both new and old, I've come to the conclusion that the ACPs being as big as they are is just silly, at least if the armor was made for you. The plate armors in particular have ludicrously high ACPs. Maybe I have lots of levels of fighter, the endurance feat, and I've only ever worn masterwork armor, but somehow I don't think so.
I'm not even going to get into why they have max dex modifiers, that's absolutely ludicrous. I can see them having dex penalties based on weight, but if you know how to operate a suit of armor well enough, you can function almost as well as you can without the armor.
Here's a thought that makes ACP look incredibly silly: The heaviest modern armor is worn by bomb-squad units, who use disable device to turn off bombs, disable device is a skill affected by ACP.
Furthermore: do you really think a suit of full plate, made for him, would slow Jackie Chan that much? Think about it.
The funny thing about this is whenever I watch the history channel and they put someone in armor or they talk about the armor they always talk about how heavy and restrictive it is.
I have no doubt that fast people are still fast in heavy armor but I doubt they are as fast. I do not doubt someone can climb in heavy aromor I do doubt the can climb as fast and for as long. The other thing I think if funny we keep bringing up weight of gear being more an issue probably so, but the character in no armor has usually less in his pack than the guy in full armor when we talk about game terms. Hence the weight of the pack was dealt with a mechanic of encumbrance.
In my armor, I have been able to move up behind people and surprise them as they did not hear me coming (my buddy in full plate can't do that, as he rattles too much), so for my armor there is no stealth penalty.
I edited your post some just for the sake of space.
What you said above spot lights why I raised the issue of level based skill bonus equivalence in the real world. (Yeah, Stubs, that was you talking about banded mail :P) Your example doesn't tell me that there's no stealth penalty, it tells me that you've got a high enough stealth bonus make the penalty negligible, whereas your buddy in full plate doesn't.
I'm more than willing to agree that full plate has too low a penalty, but your banded mail with its -6 is equal to a person in regular clothing at third level, assuming a Dex of 10. Given that skill bonuses progress to level twenty, that's not a huge penalty.
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The reason for the Dex cap is purely game balance. It's to prevent the high-Dex builds from using heavy armor to get a ludicrously high AC. Of course, the easy solution to that is to change the ability score bonus progression, or cap ability scores.
Except that screws the non-heavy armor wearing Dex builds.
It's not just to prevent the high-Dex builds from using heavy armor to get a ludicrously high AC. It's to let the high-Dex builds get a decent AC without wearing heavy armor and keep them from getting a ludicrously high AC by wearing it.
I agree, but in the context of a discussion about improving armor, my last concern is keeping it balanced with non-armor AC.
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Add to that the Ride skill. Glad to know all those knights will have no problem controlling their mounts in battle!
The reason for the Dex cap is purely game balance. It's to prevent the high-Dex builds from using heavy armor to get a ludicrously high AC. Of course, the easy solution to that is to change the ability score bonus progression, or cap ability scores.
I haven't jousted myself, but I've worked a lot with jousters, and I don't have a problem with the Ride check penalty at all. In my mind, it reflects two things: your reduction in situational awareness due to the helmet, and the lowering of your ability to regain your balance once you've lost your equilibrium.
If I were GMing, I'd probably just give the penalty to keeping your seat, rather than to controlling your mount, but having it apply to all Ride checks is simpler.
I have no doubt that fast people are still fast in heavy armor but I doubt they are as fast. I do not doubt someone can climb in heavy aromor I do doubt the can climb as fast and for as long.
That would be my take as well. Armour would limit mobility a bit, but would especially tire the knight much faster. Since Pathfinder has no mechanics for tiring out (other than loosing hp), a penalty on mobility helps preserving verisimilitude IMO. This penalty should also carry into athletic skills (such as climbing, running, swimming and acrobatics) perhaps doesn't have to be that harsh or that much spread over many skills.
Cubicle 7's The One Ring RPG has an interesting take on armour and encumbrance. It has a hit point-like mechanic (called endurance) and a weary condition kicking-in at a certain hit point threshold (akin to 4th ed bloodied condition). The heavier the armour, the higher this threshold is. An unarmored fighter can thus be fresh for longer, while the heavily armoured one will tire out sooner (but has much less chance to be wounded).
'findel
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I haven't jousted myself, but I've worked a lot with jousters, and I don't have a problem with the Ride check penalty at all. In my mind, it reflects two things: your reduction in situational awareness due to the helmet, and the lowering of your ability to regain your balance once you've lost your equilibrium.
If I were GMing, I'd probably just give the penalty to keeping your seat, rather than to controlling your mount, but having it apply to all Ride checks is simpler.
Perhaps there should be a way to offset the penalty other than more skill points.
But this raises another issue - shouldn't ACP apply to Perception checks? After all, your sense of touch, sight, and hearing are all diminished.
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I can give some personal experience also. Though I have only rarely worn mideval armor I do where modern armor very often.
Im in the US army and on a semiregular basis I wear full body armor for training purposes. I don't know what kinds of super advanced armor systems they had in the past, but modern armor must be very poor by comparison.
It is heavy, it is cumbersome, it's made by scientists who are standing on the shoulders of geniuses to create the best lightest stuff they can. I can say that doing a road march of around 10 kilometers is tiring, carrying your m-16 and water, and other gear in top of that is something you can train to do. But you will never move as well in the most advanced light-weight armor as you will in running shoes and shorts.
Trying to do anything with an extra 60-100 pounds on your body is hard. Your shoulders get tired, your legs and hips get tired. Its simply more difficult than running around in a t-shirt or with just a backpack.
I've worn the super expensive ultra light weight stuff too, it's way better than the normal stuff, but it can only get so good- I mean we are talking about stopping a force that is tryi g to kill you. And ceramic plates can be substantially lighter than steel. But I think that if you were wearing a suit of 10 gauge steel you would have a rough time moving around, even if it was "custom fitted". I mean a tailored suit is nice too, but a tie is still uncomfortable.
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My mixed chain and plate, essentially plate mail weighed 120 lbs - while I only weigh 135 lbs. It was 10 gauge steel. While I could stand around or walk in it for over an hour at a time. In actual combat (with rattan swords), a fight lasting a few minutes was tiring. If it lasted five minutes, you are almost completely exhausted. Mind you, some were trained better and could last longer, but only measured in minutes, not long at all.
Regarding the SCA, some might claim that swinging and getting hit by a rattan sword isn't the same as a steel sword. True, but the blow is full force with the goal of penetrating your armor if it were steel. Even if you can easily 'survive' when your helmet gets hit - your bell is still rung.
Loaded up IBA with all the esapi plates is around 40 lbs, maybe a little bit lighter. I am honestly not sure about the ACH (helmet). If you were to load up on everything leg plates as well the we are talking another 25-ish lbs- though that's not standard gear. Those are all light weight ceramic plates that can withstand 2-3 shots from an ak-47.
Loaded up IBA with all the esapi plates is around 40 lbs, maybe a little bit lighter. I am honestly not sure about the ACH (helmet). If you were to load up on everything leg plates as well the we are talking another 25-ish lbs- though that's not standard gear. Those are all light weight ceramic plates that can withstand 2-3 shots from an ak-47.
I was in the US Army when the kevlar helmet replaced the steel pot and helmet liner. While I would certainly not want to be shot in the head in either, with small arms the kevlar helmet is definitely safer, but by no means lighter. For a march with ruck and full gear, I'd rather be wearing a steel pot, then kevlar, as the steel pot weighs almost half that of the kevlar helmet.
The ACH is lighter than the Kevlar, its got WAY better padding too. But I can see that a steel pot would be lighter. The Kevlar was real heavy, that what I had in basic.
Trying to do anything with an extra 60-100 pounds on your body is hard. Your shoulders get tired, your legs and hips get tired. Its simply more difficult than running around in a t-shirt or with just a backpack.
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I've worn the super expensive ultra light weight stuff too, it's way better than the normal stuff, but it can only get so good- I mean we are talking about stopping a force that is tryi g to kill you. And ceramic plates can be substantially lighter than steel. But I think that if you were wearing a suit of 10 gauge steel you would have a rough time moving around, even if it was "custom fitted". I mean a tailored suit is nice too, but a tie is still uncomfortable.
I think part of the issue between modern armor and medieval armor is the arming jacket (and arming points).
The arming jacket is usually padded, is tight fitting and goes past your hips. The armor was tied into place on the arming jacket with the arming points. Because the jacket is tight fitting, the weight is distributed over your entire torso and hips. It can take a fair bit of time to put on medieval armor.
From what I remember of modern armor, a lot of the weight is born by your shoulders, often with fairly narrow straps. Modern armor can be put on fairly fast and without the help of others.
The difference in which medieval and modern armor are attached will have a big impact on how long you can wear it.
The day that I wore my armor to work, I also had a physio appointment, where I spent 30 minutes doing my normal physio routine with my armor on.
I can accept that you're probably very well versed and studied. But there's one thing that taints the analysis of your practice sessions.
You and your friends aren't really out to chop each other into bloody bits. I'm pretty sure that difference would skew things a bit.
Actually, we can get quite competitive during tournaments. You need to put force into your blows to get thru their defences. :)
I must be a bit slow today as I am not seeing how the fact that we are not trying to kill each other affects my experience in wearing medieval armor.
In my armor, I have been able to move up behind people and surprise them as they did not hear me coming (my buddy in full plate can't do that, as he rattles too much), so for my armor there is no stealth penalty.I edited your post some just for the sake of space.
What you said above spot lights why I raised the issue of level based skill bonus equivalence in the real world. (Yeah, Stubs, that was you talking about banded mail :P) Your example doesn't tell me that there's no stealth penalty, it tells me that you've got a high enough stealth bonus make the penalty negligible, whereas your buddy in full plate doesn't.
I'm more than willing to agree that full plate has too low a penalty, but your banded mail with its -6 is equal to a person in regular clothing at third level, assuming a Dex of 10. Given that skill bonuses progress to level twenty, that's not a huge penalty.
I am not sure that I agree that my stealth skills is what made the difference. My buddy is probably equally skilled at moving silently as I am, but the clang that his armor makes when he moves tends to alert everyone to his presence. My armor doesn't really make any noise when I move.
I am not trying to say that there should be no ACPs, or that they are too high. I am trying to provide some context for the discussion, to help disprove certain myths about armor and to help raise awareness of western martial arts (so that more of you will join or create guilds :)).
In my armor, I have been able to move up behind people and surprise them as they did not hear me coming (my buddy in full plate can't do that, as he rattles too much), so for my armor there is no stealth penalty.I edited your post some just for the sake of space.
What you said above spot lights why I raised the issue of level based skill bonus equivalence in the real world. (Yeah, Stubs, that was you talking about banded mail :P) Your example doesn't tell me that there's no stealth penalty, it tells me that you've got a high enough stealth bonus make the penalty negligible, whereas your buddy in full plate doesn't.
I'm more than willing to agree that full plate has too low a penalty, but your banded mail with its -6 is equal to a person in regular clothing at third level, assuming a Dex of 10. Given that skill bonuses progress to level twenty, that's not a huge penalty.
I am not sure that I agree that my stealth skills is what made the difference. My buddy is probably equally skilled at moving silently as I am, but the clang that his armor makes when he moves tends to alert everyone to his presence. My armor doesn't really make any noise when I move.
I am not trying to say that there should be no ACPs, or that they are too high. I am trying to provide some context for the discussion, to help disprove certain myths about armor and to help raise awareness of western martial arts (so that more of you will join or create guilds :)).
That being said is it easier or more difficult to move quietly with armor on? Is it easier to climb a rope with armor on? Is it easier to do a combat roll with armor on?
I would imagine that the answer to all of these is no. You could argue that a combat roll is easier with armor on due to padding- but if thats your argument I promise you are not doing it right.
And what you should in turn establish that this would be, if true, due to some inherent nature of the armour or instead merely because of its weight.
For those of you interested in what my armor looks like